1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of reminding a user subscribed to a communication network, as well as to a location reminder service architecture for reminding a user subscribed to a communication network.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, communication technology has widely spread and reached the every-day-life of numerous users which have subscribed to a communication network. Concurrently with the penetration of communication technology, and also mobile communication technology, so-called value-added services were conceived, which offer the users subscribed to a communication network and/or third parties services, which go beyond the mere communication feature as such.
Among such value-added services, so-called location based services are receiving increasing attention. In connection with these location based services, the location and/or position of a user, more precisely, of the user's terminal when attached to the network is determined and exploited for providing specific services to the user and/or a third party (e.g. a network operator).
Throughout the following specification, it is to be noted that when referring to a user, this is to be understood to refer to the user's terminal device. Also, a user subscribed to a communication network signifies that a user may use his terminal for communication purposes or the like involving the communication network architecture provided by the network operator. Such a user or terminal subscribed to a communication network may actively be involved in communication e.g. in an ongoing call, or may assume a stand-by state in which the terminal is enabled to get involved in communication. Such an active as well as a stand-by state is referred to as an attached state. In contrast, a terminal may be detached from the network and thus be disabled from being or getting involved in communication, while it nevertheless remains subscribed to the network.
Also, a position or location of a user's terminal within the communication network may be expressed by coordinates or by a range of coordinates. In order to acquire location information, i.e. for getting or obtaining information descriptive of the position and/or positional range of the user's terminal, geolocation techniques are used. Geolocation techniques are, for example, those known as Global Positioning System (GPS); Assisted-GPS (A-GPS); Observed Time Difference (OTD); Time Of Arrival (TOA); Time Difference of Arrival (TDOA); Angle of Arrival (AOA); multipath fingerprinting; Timing Advance (TA); Enhanced Forward Link Triangulation (E-FLT); Time Difference of Arrival & Received Signal Strength (TDOA&RSS); Time Difference of Arrival & Angle of Arrival (TDOA&AOA); Assisted Forward Link Triangulation & Assisted GPS (A-FLT&A-GPS); and Enhanced Observed time Difference & Assisted GPS (E-OTD&A-GPS). These techniques are known in the art and need not be described here in detail. Nevertheless, a brief introduction to and overview over these different geolocation techniques can be found in the White Paper “Geolocation and Assisted GPS” by Goran M. Djuknic (Bell Laboratories) and Robert E. Richton (Lucent Technologies), retrieved from the Internet under “www.lucent.com-livelink-090094038000e51f_White_paper” on Feb. 27, 2003, which White Paper also lists further references showing that geolocation techniques are well known in the art and do not require further detailed description here. Notwithstanding the above listed geolocation techniques, other geolocation techniques not yet listed above can be applied in connection with the invention to be described later on.
As mentioned above, location based services are currently becoming available to travelers in general and more recently to mobile users of wireless, i.e. mobile communication networks. Examples of the types of services being under development are location specific advertising and direction indications.
Currently, it is common for people to consider doing something “when I'm in the area” and subsequently forget this plan until after the opportunity to realize their plans has passed. Therefore, currently available solutions require the user to manually review and consider stored data. For example, a user might manually check a list of waypoints (intermediate points along a route between departure and destination for course corrections, checks and/or stops) stored in a navigation system or written on a map and decide on his own, if the traveler is close enough to consider including a change in his route either to visit or avoid the location. This, however, imposes an undue burden on the user.
Document WO-A-00/41413 (published Jul. 13, 2000), by P. Karlstedt and assigned to NOKIA Networks Oy, concerns a method for generation and transmission of messages in a mobile telecommunication network. This document describes a message delivery service for generating and delivering messages such as voice or data (SMS) messages to a recipient, in order to reduce the peak traffic load in mobile access networks. Thus, in terms of messages transmitted via the radio link, a statistical distribution over time is achieved. Also, the message is still delivered via the radio interface from the network to the recipient's terminal, only the radio interface between the terminal the position or location of which is monitored and the network is relieved from such messages, so that radio resource are still blocked by such messages. The generation and transmission of the messages is transparent from a user's point of view, i.e. the user of the terminal the position of which is monitored is unaware of the generation or transmission of the messages.